By now, you all know I really like EPP stuff. It is beyond durable, and even though it is not the smoothest looking aerodynamic surface, it flies incredibly well through a very wide range of flight envelopes.

The F-22 is my third BudgetRC plane. My first, the P-51, was great fun. Then I built the ULD. Each of these share a few common building techniques, including the painting, use of carbon stiffeners and lightweight electronics. The F-22 diverges somewhat with a different hinging technique, but overall, the use of EPP foam, carbon and laser cut parts is consistent.

Kit Contents

Just like all the other great airplanes from BudgetRC, the F-22 arrived in a small box, bagged for assembly. The instructions can be downloaded so youíre sure to get the most current version.

Assembly

Get ready to build by making sure you have some heavy, flat and straight weights to hold the components down during the build. It is critical you have a flat building surface and have some of the following at the ready.

Building supplies:

Wax paper or plastic wrap

Medium CA (EPP is foam safe)

Accelerator

Hot glue gun

Flat scraper

Small hand saw or side cutters

Card stock

Spray Paint

Wing

The wing is the majority of the airframe build. It is comprised of two main pieces of laser cut EPP. You will love the detail and crispness of the cuts. Nothing is cut without a purpose.

Make sure you do everything in your power to pull the two halves together tightly as you glue. Once I had the two sides in place, I installed the fat carbon stiffeners.

Fuselage

The fuselage box is easy to construct, but just like everything else, needs to be square. The sidewalls extend all the way back to the elevon hinge and support the servos. Holes are cut in the wing to receive the sidewalls perfectly.

From there it was a matter of getting the receiver, ESC and battery in place for the best CG without adding any weight. Because I used the AR6200, I installed the main receiver within the fuselage box and the auxiliary up and along the canopy.

Completion

The CG is located very close to the point where the wings begin to extend outward. The battery has to be placed along the canopy wall and as far back in the fuselage cavity as possible without hitting the prop (see above picture). The battery seems heavy (156 grams) but the F-22 is well engineered to have the correct CG with the battery all the way back. I did fly the F-22 with some larger batteries with no problem.

As a final note, make sure you put the prop on correctly. The pusher requires the prop to rotate so the leading edge of the prop is correct. Trust me, it is easy to get it wrong, and your airspeed will suffer.

Flying

The F-22 is a screamer. At full throttle, thereís enough noise to get just about everyoneís attention. A word of caution is provided by BudgetRC with regards to full throttle operation with the Ballistic Power package: Use short ten second bursts. I did this at first, but soon firewalled the throttle and have been running the F-22 full bore around and around with no problems. You will get only about 2.5 minutes at full throttle.

I did get battery temps in the 120 degree range, and the motor heats up pretty good too, but the good quality components provided by BudgetRC stood up to this kind of abuse.

Basics

I think while a few loops and rolls are in order, this F-22 is all about speed. I would climb upwind and turn downwind as steeply as possible for maximum speed. The climb is pretty good, and at about 45 degrees (as you can see in the video), it climbs completely out of sight. It is a blast to get the F-22 as high as you can and then start to build speed as the plane passes by. I would guess terminal velocity is around 70-75 MPH and is limited mostly by drag. I consistently got speeds right at 70 MPH.

Taking Off and Landing

The F-22 is a hand launch plane, so watch your fingers! The best method for launching is to hold the F-22 between the tail elevons and just give it a slight underhand release upward. You can tell at full throttle that the F-22 wants to leave your hand, and no real effort is required.

The landings are incredibly stable. Nothing I saw was even close to a stall, and the glide was very stable all the way to the ground. The F-22 is a bellylander. Note that I land pretty hot, but totally under control. Honestly, I never stalled the F-22. It can handle a large flight envelope.

Aerobatics/Special Flight Performance

Some rolls and loops and inverted flight are certainly in order, but, full out high speed passes are the preferred flight characteristic. Climbs are powerful, but not quite vertical. I experimented with several batteries in the 150 gram weight class, and in the end I measured 69 MPH as my max speed. Not bad. I used Eagletree's Micro Airspeed sensor for reconciling the speed. These little units are awesome and easily mount to the airframe of the F-22.

Downloads

Conclusion

Itís another well-designed and produced product from Budget RC. I liked the building method, the price, the EPP and the flight characteristics. They have gradually created a hangar of fine aircraft. Keep your eyes open for more.

What I liked:

Quality laser cut EPP

Well written instructions

Speed

What I didnít like so muc:

Short flight times

Noise might get too much attention

Wing Cube Loading

For some, WCL is a measure that more realistically indicates the flying ability of an aircraft. Here are some links for you to read through and a WCL calculator for your use.

I did some doppler readings on some of your level passes and I was only seeing between 50 and 60 mph. I know you got an eagle tree reading of 69 mph from a 45 degree dive.

At 36 amps of draw on a 3500 kv motor, you should be going a lot faster with a 22" 16 oz plane.

My Stryker (37" wing span, 23 oz) is using a 3500 kv inrunner with an APC E 4.5x4.1 prop. It draws 27 amps static but I've dopplered it at 83 mph. I'm drawing 9 amps less than you and going more than 20 mph faster on a 7 oz heavier and larger wing span plane... Your plane is smaller and should have a lot less drag than mine so yours really should be going a lot faster...

I'm thinking something must not be right with the prop you chose... I hear lots of screaming but not a lot of speed (almost sounds like it's churning or cavitating a little).

What prop are you running? Maybe a better prop choice will give you much better performance and better duration too...

Not sure you assumed things correctly. I videoed the F-22 when I had the prop on backwards. Later flights were used to measure the speed after I flipped the prop. Your measures are close as I was getting about 58 MPH with the prop in backwards. Sorry for not saying the prop size. I will check and post asap. Also I understand noise form the prop increases the closer it is to the airframe.